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Jan 29, 2023

God of Justice

Passage: Deuteronomy 2:24-3:11

Preacher: Andrew Repsold

Series: Deuteronomy

Keywords: sin, evil, judgment, hardened heart, repentance, obedience, wrath of god, covenants, giants, paganism

Summary:

This message deals with one of the most challenging realities of God's dealing with evil--the complete destruction of some people, cities and people groups. It also helps us experience the value of wrestling with God in this and other difficult truths.

Detail:

Deuteronomy 2:24-3:11

The Defeat of King Sihon

26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, 29 as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ 30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day. 31 And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. 34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction[b] every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. 35 Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured. 36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, as far as Gilead, there was not a city too high for us. The Lord our God gave all into our hands. 37 Only to the land of the sons of Ammon you did not draw near, that is, to all the banks of the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, whatever the Lord our God had forbidden us.

Deuteronomy 3

English Standard Version

The Defeat of King Og

3 “Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2 But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ 3 So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And we devoted them to destruction,[a] as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children. 7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. 8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon 9 (the Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, while the Amorites call it Senir), 10 all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan, as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits[b] was its length, and four cubits its breadth, according to the common cubit.[c])

Lessons from this text:

  1. Covenant relationship with God is a divine partnership.

This text:

2:31-33 31 And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.

Who defeated the Amorites?  God or the Israelites…YES.

New Covenant Parallel:

Philippians 2:12b-13

…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

  1. We should be peaceable people who are firmly obedient to the commands of God.

This text:

26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace, …and yet they engaged in warfare against these kingdoms when they were opposed.

New Covenant Parallel:

Romans 12:17-18

17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

When is it not possible to live at peace…when someone is engaging in wickedness of such a nature, that love demands we intervene or engage in conflict.

There is a difference between someone who is peaceable but firmly holds to the word of God…and someone who is conflict averse or just plain cowardly. (example of the first generation of the Israelites…what they did by not entering the promised land and engaging in battle with the wicked nations already there could have looked like an act of peace when, in fact, it was disobedience to God. Similarly, not talking about abortion in church can look like a peaceable pursuit but in fact be turning a blind eye to the sins of our day and culture.)

John 15:18-20

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

Lesson: peaceable people who fear God, are going to engage in cultural spiritual battles. We are not doing it because we are seeking to create conflict or discord among our society, but because we are pursuing righteousness and opposing evil.

  1. Repent TODAY from your sin, or your heart will harden towards God.

This text:

30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.

NT Parallel:

Hebrews 3

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Repentance is a multiple-times-a-day experience for the true believer. Why, because we don’t want our hearts to grow calloused to the holy spirit convicting us of sin.

  1. We must deal lethally with the wickedness preventing us from obtaining God’s promised blessings.

This text:

The promise: possession of a land taken away by warfare and fear from utterly wicked kingdoms in order to establish a kingdom of righteous people, showing the world of the supremacy and holiness/goodness of their God.

The wickedness: The Amorites.

NT Parallel:

The promise: sanctification…growing in holiness (conforming to the image of Jesus Christ)

Philippians 1:6

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

The wickedness: what is preventing us from obtaining/experiencing this promise (sanctification)? Our sinful flesh! So what must we wage war against…

Colossians 3:5-11

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[a] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[c] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 

  1. With God, no giant or fortified city is too insurmountable to keep us from experiencing what God has promised for us.   

Example: ability to pray and love those who do evil to us.

2 peter 1:3

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence,[d] 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 

Wrestling with God over Deuteronomy 2:24-3:11

  1. How can a loving God condone the genocide of an entire people group? Including the killing of Women and children? But taking their livestock as plunder?

That sounds like a description of pirates! God told Abraham that his covenant with him would result in him being a blessing to all nations….except the Amorites and the Jebusites. And the Canaanites etc.? What is this about?

I want to guide us now through the process of wrestling with God? (like Jacob did)

You need to know that it is ok, nay GOOD, to wrestle with God when you read troubling things like this in his word or experience troubling things in your life or on the news and they make you seriously question the character of God (his goodness, his sovereignty, etc.)

God’s forbearance:

Genesis 15:13-16

13 Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Genesis 18:20

20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether[g] according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”